Tips on Helping to Write College Essays

A College Entrance/Personal Statement/Scholarship Essay

NARROW YOUR TOPIC - It is important that you choose a small idea that is personal to you. In our first help/consultation session, I will assist you in narrowing your topic that relates to the college/scholarship question you are to answer.

AWESOME OPENER - It is VERY important to have a descriptive hook to catch the reader. The essay evaluator only spends about two minutes reading your essay so you need to catch their attention on your narrow idea that leads to the specific essay question. I will help you focus on the specific question after we get to know each other and I am more familiar with your interests and ideas in our first consultation.

BE YOURSELF - Let your personality come out on the page. This is your chance for the evaluator to learn about you through your writing abilities. Once we chat in our first session, I will be able to give you pointers on how to convey the best YOU! Hopefully, after we talk, you will be able to relax and have confidence in your writing abilities to convey your thoughts as your support you statement.

BIG WORDS - Don't worry about using big words to impress the evaluator. Think about developing a variety of vocabulary to relate the same idea so you are not repetitious or wordy. Remember, be yourself. I will give you guidance in cleaning up these minor errors when writing your essay. After you compose your personal statement or essay and corrections are made, we will discuss this issue in our second session if it is a problem.

CLICHES - Stay away from using them. No need for flowery language and common phrasing. We will work on getting rid of these if they surface in your rough draft and come up with other options that establish more of the tone you are trying to get across. You want to reveal your character in your own way.

MECHANICS MATTER - It is very important that you use sentence variety and proper mechanics in your college entrance or scholarship essay. This personal statement should tell the evaluator about yourself; moreover, the punctuation variety will also show them your writing abilities. This is one of the key skills I will work with you on after proofing your rough draft as you move towards your final college entrance/personal statement/scholarship essay.

A 'LITTLE HUMOR' - It's okay to add a little humor into your essay; however, just make sure it is not overused. This will be easy to add or delete from your first draft when we have our second consultation.

OVERUSING "I" - It is acceptable to use "I" in your personal essay, but the overuse of "I" or similar words distracts from your writing abilities. I will help you work on this if it is a problem when we discuss your corrected essay during our last consultation.